A Rustle of Silk
by Aprill May
Summary: [MS AU] He had the love of his life, and everything was fine the way it was. Then he met a paradox incarnate, and he made her mystery his to unravel.
1. Default Chapter

A/N: It gets better, I swear!

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha.

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_I know I've done a lot of stupid, idiotic things in life. I should know, because they always resulted in my being called a stupid idiot. But do you ever get the feeling that a mistake didn't cost you something bad, it cost you something good? I can't really explain it, but I can remember. _

_Not to say that with everything that happened, I gained anything. I ended up giving up something that was already good in the first place. I know the saying. 'If it's not broken don't try to fix it.'_

_It was just that what I had with her was so different. _

_From this, you probably get the idea that I'm an insensitive jerk. That's not true at all. I'm not insensitive, I'm just a jerk; one that's afraid that things might change. _

_With everything I did, I wonder if it was worth it, the way I hurt people and compromised their feelings. Almost, in a way, taking them for granted; I thought that they would always be there. _

_It wasn't that much of a shock that when I knew inside that I needed her, the best thing I could do for the both of us felt so wrong . . . _

_And even now, I wonder if the right thing to do, really was the right thing to do._

_I knew that the right thing, had to be the harder thing._

_I knew it was my fault._

_#-#-#-#-#-#-#_

_**A Rustle of Silk**_

_Written by May_

for Soli-chan

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It was snowing on that day.

Miroku let her drive even though she hadn't got her license renewed. She knew how to drive and all, it's just that when she's away at school, she doesn't use her car. Therefore, her license expires.

It just so happened that they were on the way back from visiting her parents in another city, in the middle of a snowstorm. It was a complete white out. He had never been in such a slowly moving vehicle in his whole life. He was tired, he had to work tomorrow, he was impatient. He told her to go a little faster. It was so late, he figured, who would be on the road anyway?

The car bumped into something, probably a fence or an animal he felt very sorry for, and skidded across the lanes. Koharu was shaken, and he worried that her body had stopped producing blood for it had all but drained from her face. He persuaded her to keep on going, and a few minutes later, she was back to her old, chattering self.

Then they heard the sirens. Amazingly, a police car had managed to spot them even in the less-than-favourable conditions. If anything was able to wipe a content smile from her lips, the thought of a criminal record was the clincher.

Koharu was so worried, she didn't have a license, and surely, the way the car was swerving on the ice, it looked as though she was drunk. So Miroku, being the brave and manly gentleman that he was, switched seats with her.

Thank goodness he hadn't really drank and passed the breath test, but that was all to be thankful for. His license was already suspended at the time.

He was given a fine and six months of community service. From the very beginning, he knew he was digging his own grave. From that very first day, he wondered if he was compromising his happiness by completing his sentence and if that would be a good enough reason not to.

From the very first time that he met her, was when everything began to change without him ever noticing.

_#-#-#-#-#-#-#_

"I enjoy long walks on the beach, romantic, expensive dinners, rooms filled with scented candles - "

The volunteer coordinator's right eye twitched as though it wanted to jump out of its socket. "Is that all?" she said in a polite voice that sounded almost genuinely interested. She would have to try harder than that.

"Depends what I'm limited to."

She sighed. "Sir, I know this is court-ordered service, but your answers to these questions will affect where you get placed."

"I know."

There was the sharp sound of marks being made on paper. "This is not a dating service," she commented absently as she ripped the top sheet off of her notepad.

"Apologies. Allow me to compensate for my rudeness with one night you will never forget."

Eyeing him oddly, she waved it off, leaning back and glancing at the clock. "It's quite all right, I had a late night last night anyway, no sleep at all," she lamented, fanning herself.

He crossed his arms, looking a cross between disappointed and miffed. "Well, I should have expected a beautiful lady like you to be getting her fair share of - "

"Sweets," she filled in sharply. "Anyway," she jolted up straight once again. "You're the . . . the unique, interesting type. I'll put you with some of the younger ones, clerical duties, support groups, thank-you cards, telephone duty, and . . . I wonder . . . "

He leaned forward in his seat expectantly. "Yes?" he prodded.

"No, never mind," the coordinator was smiling again. "Wandered off on another mental tangent. Come on, come with me."

He shivered as he kept my eyes on the flowing black hair of Higurashi Kagome, the kind, giving soul that preferred to spend the majority of her free time helping out in a hospital. She looked the picture of bliss and fulfilment. If she kept on smiling like that, he might be blinded.

Perhaps he should introduce her to Koharu.

_#-#-#-#-#-#-#_

"Hmm," he heard her mutter. "Still out cold. He'll just have to meet him another time."

Within a flash, she was pulling him down the hallway again. "The last one you'll see today," she informed him, throwing him a quick glance over her shoulder. If she noticed how dazed his expression was, she either disregarded it or didn't care. Or maybe she was secretly pleased.

"In here," she said abruptly, pulling open another door and allowing him to walk in.

'She has a really nice figure,' was his first thought, before he kicked himself mentally. The girl was lying on a hospital bed, of all things.

"There's someone here to meet you," Kagome said loudly, walking around the bed and touching the patient's arm gently.

"Kohaku?" the girl's head shifted, dark brown hair that spilled across the bland white of the sheets catching his attention for a moment.

"No, not Kohaku," Kagome didn't sound happy to tell her that. "Another . . . volunteer. He's just on orientation today, and he'll be visiting every week."

The patient's shoulders slumped once again. "I don't need another one."

Kagome gave Miroku a finite sort of look, one that plainly said, 'this-is-her-on-a-normal-day'.

"I have to go deliver a few more things to other patients," Kagome informed him as she passed by to exit the room. "I'll be in this corridor so don't hesitate to call me if anything should happen."

"But what am I supposed to do?"

She looked back at the girl on the bed and sighed helplessly. "Charm her?"

He shrugged in indifference, and took in her rather shapeless form, courtesy. of the hospital gown draped around her.

Charming was definitely one of his better qualities, but on the other hand . . .who was he to argue with himself over a body like _that_?

Upon closer inspection, he discovered that she had the covers pulled up to her chin but hints of what he was sure were beautiful long legs formed hills beneath the sheets.

Looking around, he sidled up beside the bed, and attempted to wedge his hand under her bottom, squeezing.

A female's hand appeared from under the blanket and grabbed his arm. In a panic, Miroku looked towards the girl's head, expecting to see an angry, and maybe (if he was lucky) beautiful face.

From what he could see, her hair was thick, almost obscuring her face, which was framed by long bangs. It hadn't been combed in a while. Her top lip was thin, and her bottom lip had a small pout to it.

The last feature he could take in was a quaint little nose, poking out from a thick square of gauze. Two more of these squares covered her eyes and parts of her forehead, underneath her bangs. His gaze continued down to her shoulders, where it abruptly focused on the hints of wrappings beneath her gown.

She couldn't see him.

"Kagome!" she called loudly, turning her head in the direction of the door. "Help!"

He tried to wrench his arm away, but gently enough so he wouldn't throttle her too much. Sadly, in any other situation it would prove impossible. This situation was no different.

"Are you okay?" Kagome asked breathlessly as she appeared in the doorway. "What's happening?"

The girl threw his arm aside and eased back onto her pillows, dropping his arm and crossing her own. "This guy just grabbed my ass."

Kagome raised an eyebrow at him. "Is this true?"

"Now, wait a second here," Miroku held out his hands in defeat. "I didn't know she couldn't see."

The regular hospital volunteer winced as the room became deadly silent.

"So," the patient said in an eerily quiet voice. "Because I can't see right now, it means that it's all right for you to come up and start touching me inappropriately? It was an accident? If I could see, it would be completely fine because I can _see you coming_?"

She gingerly turned her upper body in the direction of Kagome. "This is bullshit. Tell him never to come here again, the bastard."

"Listen," Kagome said gently. "He's already assigned to this floor. Maybe you simply got off on the wrong foot and - "

"I don't care," the patient shot back. "He shows up all high and mighty because he's donating some of his precious time to spend a few hours a day with a patient that the doctors think needs to communicate more. I don't buy this shit and as far as I'm concerned, he can fuck off."

Miroku was taken aback. Who did she think she was? As far as figures go, she was decent, he couldn't tell for sure until he saw her face, but by the way she was bandaged, it wasn't going to be good. Graceful as a butterfly, stinging like a bee.

"You seem to have very little patience, Miss. I don't volunteer here, I have to be here. And while I enjoy helping others, the ones that need it usually are more - _accepting_ - of it. This will be easier on the both of us if you acted like a woman."

His face contorted into an slight frown; shame she couldn't see it. He guessed that she wanted to give him as equal a dirty look, but could not.

"Me? Acting like a child?" The girl was going to sit up again but Kagome hurried over and gently pushed her shoulders down. "I'm not the one who tries to get under the . . . under the gowns of hospital patients damn it! Temporarily blind or not."

"Well, I apologize," Miroku said, offering his hand. After a minute, he realized his mistake and reached down, taking her hand and barely moving it upwards before she pulled it away.

"Don't ever touch me again," she spat, curling up against her pillows, facing his direction. "You don't want to be here. Don't come here when I know you don't want to be here."

_A challenge_, he mouthed, wanting to reach for her hand again to see just how much more hostile she could become.

She lay back on her pillows and pulled the covers over herself.

"You probably need a change of bandages." Kagome patted her on the arm and pressed the call button beside the bed. "Don't get so excited sweetie, you won't heal any faster."

The girl's hands were gripping the sheets so tight that he thought her veins might pop out of her skin. Kagome looked up suddenly as his shoe squeaked against the floor, remembering him, and eyeing her watch. "Thanks for coming, sir, but that's all we'll do for today. I'll see you next week?"

He could barely nod. The past few hours had been far too surreal for him.

"Do you remember how to get out?"

"Yeah, sure," he said quickly. Three turns, one front desk, elevator. Now just to reverse the order. "Next week."

_#-#-#-#-#-#-#_

"How did it go?"

Miroku pushed the door back soundly and it shuddered as it slammed shut. He sighed deeply, kicking off his shoes and walking past the petite young girl that stood awaiting his response.

"It was absolute hell," he responded, shrugging off his coat and throwing it over the back of a chair.

"Horrible."

"It couldn't have been that bad," she reasoned, pouring him a cup of boiling water and dropping a tea bag in.

"Yes, it was that bad." After glancing at Koharu's tea, he opened the refrigerator door and rummaged through the contents, pulling out a more inviting bottle of beer.

"Are you sure you wouldn't rather drink something else?" The girl pushed the cup along the surface of the table.

He looked at it briefly, and then at the bottle in his hand, and took another drink from it, tilting his head back. "Sorry Koharu," he said as he set it down. "It just was that bad."

Pulling a chair back at the table, she motioned for him to sit. "Miroku," she began, pulling the tea towards her and settling in for what was sure to be a long rant. "Tell me all about it."

There was a hollow thud as he set the bottle on the table from yet another gulp, and ran his fingers through his hair. "They did a little survey on me, asking me about why I was there, how long, things like that. Of course they should already know all that."

Koharu nodded in agreement. "So, when does all the bad stuff start?"

"I'm getting to that. They bring me around to some of the people I might be dealing with. The first two were okay, pretty young. One was in for an accident and the other for getting into a fight after he mouthed off some guys on the street."

"That doesn't sound too good."

"Tell me about it. He wouldn't shut up about how he swears revenge."

Koharu took a sip from her tea, absorbing all this new information. "So when does it get bad?"

"Right about now. Third person. A girl."

"Please Miroku, don't tell me you - "

"I did."

"Why do I put up with this Miroku?" she said in mock exasperation. "I mean, you can't even stop yourself when you're having a supposedly terrible time."

He shrugged. "I couldn't help it. I wanted to leave, I was tired and _yes_, I was having a terrible time. I would do anything to get my mind off of it."

"Was she prettier than me?" She fluttered her eyelashes coyly.

"Couldn't tell. Her face was all bandaged up."

"I didn't know!" he exclaimed at the expression of horror on Koharu's face. "One of her hands was across her eyes and her hair wasn't helping, it's quite long and was particularly unkempt."

"That poor girl!" Koharu exclaimed, gripping the handle of her cup. "She was all bandaged, probably hurt, and out of nowhere, she feels you groping her ass."

"I apologized afterward, but she got very defensive. The other girl in there tried to calm her down, but she was swearing and everything. I wasn't in a very good mood so I talked back," he scoffed. "She refused to talk to me afterward. The only good thing about the day was when Kagome told me I could leave."

"Kagome?"

"Other girl in the room."

Koharu slid her hand across the table and laid it over his. "I'm really sorry that you have to do this. You shouldn't have covered for me."

"You would have been in more trouble than I was if they'd caught you," he replied, squeezing her hand. "School board wouldn't like that too much, now would they?"

"True," Koharu said thoughtfully, taking another sip of her tea. "But think of it this way," she set her cup down and smiled optimistically. "It's only for another six months."

"Somehow, that doesn't make me feel any better."

"Come on, play along!" She laughed, attempting to lighten the dark mood he'd dragged in with him. "I'll even come with you, if I can. I'm sure the patients are wonderful."

"No, they aren't," he dispelled, taking another long drink now that he was being reminded so forcefully about what they really were like. Well, all except the first boy, he'd been out like a light.

"It'd probably be easier for you, school teachers are supposed to be good at that sort of thing."

"Not a teacher officially yet," she reminded him, pushing her empty teacup aside. "Listen, just try and get closer to the patients? You're not going anywhere for a long time, and neither are they, but they're probably in worse positions than you."

Before he could argue, she added, "you could probably form some good relationships there, you know. Even if you don't, I just don't want you to come home like this every day. You'll become an alcoholic."

"But damn, Koharu, it just wasn't a good day," he digressed, pushing aside his finished bottle. "The kind that probably won't lead to better ones."

"It will, if you let it," she assured him, standing up. "Now I have to get home, I'm teaching a lesson tomorrow."

He pushed back from the table to show her to the door. "Good luck," he said, giving her a light kiss.

"You need it more than I do." She prodded a finger at him, smiling. "Be good. Just remember, it can't get any worse."

_#-#-#-#-#-#-#_

As she left, he leaned against the door, contemplating another drink before sleeping. Only a girl as young as Koharu could be so optimistic. But that was what he liked about her right? She was almost always smiling, offering advice, telling him the good news. He knew that after a conversation with her, he'd always be left with a new outlook on things.

So why did life feel so upside down right now?

Oh, yes, the 'charitable' work he had to do.

At least Koharu would be there for him to voice his frustrations to, and for sure, she would listen patiently. That girl, she really did care enough about him to pay him attention even though she could barely find an hour around her work and studies.

It'd been nearly eight months since he'd met her, after helping her out when she was stranded on the highway. Even then, she'd been as cheerful as ever, saying she knew someone would come eventually.

He figured he should be with a girl like that. She obviously liked him, and he liked her, so he didn't see any problems. They were together by default.

Everything was fine so far, six months of forced companionship wouldn't even put a dent in the list of things she had done for him. It was all he could do to show her how much he cared. He'd get through this, perhaps take the next step with Koharu and life would be great the way it was.

If it wasn't already.


	2. Chapter 2

a/n: I've been...nevermind, I've got nothing. Oh, but Soli-chan and I are having a who can update the slowest competition. That is somehow supposed to get us to update faster. I don't know all the rules yet. But that's my excuse.

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha. Even though he's like, not present at the moment.

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**A Rustle of Silk**

_2: Over and Again_

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"Oh Miroku, not again," Koharu sighed as she walked in carrying a stack of papers. "What happened today?"

She set the pile down on a table and joined his prone form slumped on the couch. "Miroku, how did it go today?" she asked in a gentle, non-threatening manner.

Groaning, he leaned against her and blew out a small puff of air. "A slight notch down from the absolute horrendous experience it was last week."

"My poor baby," she teased, patting his hand sympathetically. "Tell me all about it, again."

"Higurashi told me I didn't have to see the two boys today."

Koharu opened one of her notebooks, leafing through the pages. "And then?"

"I had to stay with the girl."

She shut the notebook, rested her hands over top of it and winked at him. "So isn't that a good thing?"

Closing his eyes, he shook his head. "Not really. She despises me."

There was a flicker of amusement in her eyes, while she simultaneously looked genuinely concerned. "Your first time groping her left her with a bad first impression of you, dear."

Flicking a speck of lint off of his pants, he tossed Koharu's notebook back onto the table and she wrapped her arms around him in a hug. "Did you at least get to know her a little better?"

"I don't want to." He rested his chin on her shoulder. "There's a beautiful girl who waits for me at home already."

"Don't flatter me," she chided, patting him on the back. "I'm telling you, it sucks now, but that will only make it feel all the more better once it's all over."

"It's barely begun!" he complained, playing with the length of Koharu's hair; a shade between brown and black, that fell just past her shoulder blades. He had to admit she was more than correct concerning one aspect. The horrible weekends only made his time with her so much more enjoyable. Sitting with Koharu now made the dismal parts of his day much more forgettable.

"I told you just to be optimistic!" she lectured, slapping his hand away as it moved down her back. "And usually you are!"

"Well, I'm not as capable of being as cheery as you," Miroku argued, frowning comically. "It bothers me how someone can be so quick to anger like that.. "

Koharu looked deep in thought again. "Well, what happened?"

_#-#-#-#-#-#-#_

_Remember what Koharu said, it's only six months._

That was the mantra he played over repeatedly in his head as he stood outside the doors of the hospital, contemplating how the next few hours would progress.

"How long are you going to hang around out here, sir?" Kagome's head poked out from between the doors. "Come inside."

_Only six months. _He smiled cheekily at a passing nurse.

_Only six months_. Kagome led him up a few corridors and through a familiar hallway.

_Who am I kidding?_

"Who are we seeing first?" he piped up, trying not to sound as though he were dreading the answer.

"The girl," she said cheerfully, tapping the walls as she walked.

"What was her name?"

Kagome glanced at him over her shoulder. "Actually I didn't give either of you each other's names. I really want you to get something out of this work, court-ordered or not, so you're going to build nice, proper, makes-you-happy relationships."

He tightened his slackening jaw and began to grind his teeth together. "What do you mean?"

She stopped him outside the door. "I mean, you'll introduce yourself properly and be civil." She peeked through the glass.

"Civil? Didn't you hear what she said last -"

"Shh," Kagome interrupted, placing her hand on the doorknob. Muffled sounds reached his ears through the door. It opened a crack, and he couldn't help but listen.

"I'm finished," a female voice said in a forlorn tone.

"Miss Hanako," a different voice said encouragingly. "Try to finish everything."

Something metal clattered on plastic. "I'm done."

"Are you sure? How about one more bite?"

"I'm done," the girl repeated sharply.

"Does it hurt?" The other voice sounded a bit concerned. "Would it be better for me to feed you the rest?"

A sniff and the faint sound of hair swaying furiously. "I can do it myself."

Kagome pushed the door open to enter and Miroku watched as the moody girl from the week before lifted a spoon to her mouth, only to touch the food to her upper lip and wince.

"Damn it," she swore, holding her chin. "This doesn't need vision to do correctly!" Another hiccup and she touched her chest gingerly.

Dropping the utensil, she clutched her tray and spoke in a sharp tone. "Who's there?"

"It's just me, Kagome. How are you doing Sango-chan?"

"He's there. I know it."

Kagome gestured to the lady helping her eat and she quickly gathered up the cutlery and containers, preparing to leave the room.

"He's here to see you."

The aide flashed a quick smile to Kagome and Miroku before leaving the room swiftly, looking grim.

"He's here because he has to be," Sango's response pierced the air.

Miroku stood a few feet away from the bed, putting distance between himself and the girl, just in case she chose to lash out at him in a blind fury, no pun intended.

"I'll be right outside the door," Kagome said to Miroku, her head bobbing encouragingly. "I'll check in once in a while."

"Excuse me, what?" Miroku asked in a shocked tone. "You're going to . . . leave?"

"Only for a minute," she sang, walking out the door. "I'll just leave you two for a bit." It swung open and shut so fast the blinds rattled.

"Stay back," she shot at him as he shuffled forward.

"I'm going to sit down," he explained crudely, sitting down in an armchair. He looked despairingly at the generic quartz clock on the wall, watching as it ticked by each passing painful second with glee.

"So," he offered, letting his eyes drift over to where she was lying facing away from him with her arms crossed. "You know why I'm here, so why are you here?" If possible, he could almost feel the chill of ice radiating off of her. He braced himself for the impact.

An incoherent snort escaped the lump on the bed. "I don't know why you're here. All I know is you have to be here. What did you do, sexually assault someone? Again?"

He looked a tad miffed, but he didn't really care since she couldn't see him anyway. "I obstructed the law."

"So it's safe to assume it was sexual assault. Isn't there a law against people like you being able to volunteer here?"

"Something you should learn is that assuming gets you nowhere. It makes an - "

"Ass of you to me?" she supplied, cracking her knuckles. "How can I make an ass out of myself to someone who is, arguably, the champion of all asses?"

That hit a nerve. "Listen again," there was a sharp edge to his voice. "I groped you once, not by accident, and I apologize. Let's put the incident behind us so I can actually get something out of this whole experience."

"Fine." A shuffling as she rolled onto her back. "Do your good deed, your time, feel good about helping someone worse off than you and forget this ever happened so you can get on with your life."

He tried to ignore the fact that she was speaking the biting truth. "That's not what I'm here for."

"If you say so." She pressed her hands flat against her stomach and breathed quietly, the only sound that filled the sterile room.

"And what are you here for?"

She nudged the foot post of the bed with her leg, indicating the little plastic slot where a clipboard rested snugly alongside a pen. Pulling it towards him, he skimmed over the contents of the first page, looking for words he understood.

"Read whatever you want on my chart, and say nothing else about it. Imagine, giving a stranger access to my information."

"You seem eager enough to share it yourself on some occasions," he commented idly as he dropped the clipboard back in its place with a clatter. "Hanako Sango, that's quite a pretty name you have."

A stubborn half-snort and noise of indifference. "Don't even start."

"I couldn't think of a reason why I would."

She crossed her arms again and shifted her body upwards onto her pillows. If she were able to see she would have been facing him directly.

"As for a total stranger; with regards to that, wouldn't you like my name as well?"

"Not really." She drew a chunk of hair apart from the rest and began to braid it.

"I'm going to be seeing you for the next six months."

"And?"

"It's Miroku."

"You only have one name? Are you illegitimate?"

"Yes."

He watched for indications that that casual bit of information had any effect on her whatsoever. Of course, it was much harder without her eyes visible.

She brushed the instance aside quickly. "I'm not going to call you that."

"Why not?"

"Give me your last name."

"I don't want to."

"I'm not calling you by your first name if I don't even know you. I don't even know what you look like."

Raising a finger, he opened his mouth.

"Spare me," she cut him off before he could interrupt. "I need no physical descriptions."

The legs of the chair scraped and marked the floor as he pushed it backwards into the corner of the room. Letting his head roll backwards on his shoulders, he stared up at the off white ceiling.

"Besides," her stingy voice interrupted his attempt to speed up the time he spent in this room. "Your last name would be the polite way for me to refer to you, correct? Isn't polite high on your list of qualities?"

Somehow he didn't think that this was leading somewhere favourable on his part. "You noticed that?" he said cautiously.

"I would have if I hadn't experienced firsthand how perverted you are."

"You're one that likes to live in the past, I see." He couldn't help but feel a bit amused. "I wonder if you'll hold that one time against me forever."

Her lips tightened moreso.

"Well?" he prompted.

Her hands fisted around her sheets. "Don't act like you know everything about me."

"That wasn't my intention." He kept his patience in check, and stared at her.

"What _is_ your intention then?" she snapped. Miraculously, she made no reference to the groping.

"If you don't want me to act like I know everything, then _tell_me about you. Tell me something, anything." He had no idea what had possessed him to say those words. If he had to guess, he'd have wagered his money on curiosity.

One of her fingers twined around a thin rope of her brown hair. She spoke again, her voice noticeably softer, but still harsh. "You have no reason to care. Just like you have no personal reason to be here."

"Give me one."

"How about," she began coldly, "you never come back here again."

He sat back in his chair, his hands unknowingly twitching where they rested on his legs. "Don't tell me you're one of those people."

"What 'people'?" she snapped.

"You have in you the ability to smile, but won't try. I think that you weren't always like this."

Both her hands fell to her sides, and lay atop the sheets crumpled at her hips. "Hey," she nearly whispered, the sound as potent as the delicate scratching of a pencil upon paper. "It's not worth it. "

_#-#-#-#-#-#-#_

"After that, she turned away and refused to look at -- say anything more to me," Miroku told Koharu. "Did anything I say sound remotely offensive?"

"I can think of a few things," Koharu answered. "I won't elaborate," she said after seeing the look he gave her. She surveyed him with a thoughtful expression gracing her youthful face. "What happened after that?" she asked finally.

"Nothing. Well, I did go to the washroom. That was probably the only time I wasn't on edge."

"Come on," she said soothingly. "You're making it out to be worse than it really is."

"This time I'm not," he assured her with a dull stare. "This is the first girl I've met that despised me on first contact."

"Maybe," a hint of sarcasm was laced through her tone. "If your first contact wasn't with her ass -- that seems to be the entire reason for her hostility. "

"Even so," he argued in good nature. "I had the grace to continue in a polite manner. I don't get what is wrong with her. Even if I hadn't . . . Of all the women -- I'm baffled."

Koharu turned to him inquisitively. "Miroku, just why is that girl in the hospital anyway?"

He recalled scanning her chart, but nothing immediately rose to the top of his mind. "All I remember is that most of her face has to be covered and she can't move around that violently. Somehow, I reason with myself that I should be a bit glad for that fact."

"Miroku!" Koharu exclaimed. "Don't say things like that!"

"I was just joking." He hugged her again, playfully. "I think I've talked all I can about how my day was."

"Maybe you scare her," she mused, tilting her head.

"Why would that be?"

"There was the whole groping thing," Koharu reminded him. "And then the whole 'I don't want to be here' thing, and now the 'tell me about you' thing."

"I see," he responded, leaning back into the cushions. "She doesn't know what to expect of me, does she?"

He slapped himself on the forehead. "Enough of this, I'm done for the next week."

"So now we can work on making it better?" Koharu asked slyly.

All his tiredness dissapated into the air at that moment. "After dealing with her, I need to relax."

She rolled her eyes. "You're over thinking this."

He frowned. "No, you're the one over thinking this. Can we do something else Koharu?" he whined.

"Well," she continued offhandedly. "You don't visit the patients all the time, now do you?"

Miroku sighed, complying. "I have other odd jobs. Clerical duties, help with the support groups, answering the phone . . . I think I have to send the mail too."

She raised an eyebrow. "They're trusting _you_ to help with a support group?"

"Hey, I can so run a support group," he insisted, smiling in amusement. "Okay my dear, why don't you stand up and introduce yourself. Like this." He stood, acting as though he were nervous. "My name is Miroku, and I have a problem."

Kohaku kicked him in the shin. "Laughing at the expense of others is a no-no, Miroku," she lectured. "And you'll be saying that soon enough if you keep up this attitude."

"My name is Miroku and my problem is my girlfriend," he sang, ignoring her and moving out of her reach. "I gave up freedom for her and now I have to spend the next six months with an almost-but-not-quite comatose boy, a loudmouth, and a girl who thinks I am the scum of the earth."

"Not the scum of the earth, just a pervert," Koharu corrected with a giggle.

"And a whole lot of other unsuitable words," he shrugged. "Koharu, who cares?" he demanded, pulling her up by her wrists. "I'm going to take you out, so get ready. Then you can regale me with the stories of little brats running around you all day."

She rolled her eyes and gave him a skeptical smile. "Well this is what you get for being stupid. I could be doing the community service and enjoying it right now, silly."

"Not stupid," he countered, his chest puffing up in pride. "Chivalrous."

Koharu shook her head, her eyes shining. "Right now, I could have been best friends with that girl you speak so ill of."

Miroku was already waving her coat at her. "From this point on, we end the discussion of what I'm putting myself through for your sake, darling."

Shrugging her coat on, she stuck her tongue out at him, walking towards the door. "You might even, well, fall for this girl," she said mischievously.

His face took on an expression of disbelief as she threw open the door, letting in a blast of cool air. He took off after her, sneaking his arms around her waist and picking her up while she struggled, her laughter musical.

"You did not just say that," Miroku sniped at her. "I have you!"

"I'm just teasing," she explained, her cheeks rosy from the cold. "Don't be so sensitive! Just because you have a little crush," she mumbled.

He began to tighten his arms around her in a semi-bearhug. "Okay, okay I apologize," Koharu gasped, wheezing.

"Anyway," he said, brushing the brief conversation away. "Let's go somewhere."

She grinned. "Of course. Surprise me."

The light contact of her holding the crook of his elbow was a sweet reminder of the stability that had come along with her entrance into his life. It was like he had always known her, and was always meant to have been with her. Miroku smiled to himself.

_If there is one sure thing in my life, it is the girl that is with me now, with a laugh and smile that brightened the sky._

_#-#-#-#-#-#-#__  
_


End file.
